November 3, 2009

Gibbons point guard talks Loyola pledge

There were plenty of reasons why Cardinal Gibbons point guard Dylon Cormier decided to commit to Loyola last week.

Reason No. 1 on the 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior’s list of positives was simple.

“Minutes. A lot of minutes,” said Cormier, who averaged 19 points, six rebounds and four assists last season. “The situation is that they’re losing their starting point guard, Brett Harvey. The kid that’s the backup right now, Brian [Rudolph], is going to be a senior next year, and that’s the only point guard [on the roster for next season]. I’ll get minutes as a freshman and it’s pretty much going to be my team for the rest of my college career.”

Cormier, an All-MIAA A Conference first-team selection as a junior, picked the Greyhounds over offers from Long Island, St. Francis (Pa.), Stony Brook and Youngstown State. Cormier took an official visit to St. Francis earlier this fall, calling the trip to rural Loretto, Pa., “real boring.” His visit to Loyola, meanwhile, couldn’t have been better.

“[It was a] drastic [difference]. Crazy,” Cormier said. “Everybody was nice, everybody was friendly. There were a lot of people there and a lot of students there. I just liked the atmosphere there. It’s a lot of people there and it’s close to home.”

Loyola started recruiting Cormier this summer after noticing him on the AAU circuit with Crusader Nation. Greyhounds assistant Greg Manning, a 2008 Loyola graduate, made a good impression on Cormier immediately.

“He’s real, real cool. He’s my guy,” Cormier said. “He’s really funny and he went to Loyola, actually. He was telling me everything about his experience, so that was cool. ... He went through it, so he wouldn’t lie about it. That was real cool.”

Cormier also it off with Jimmy Patsos, Loyola’s animated head coach. Witnessing Patsos in action during his visit to the school sealed the deal.

“Man, he’s a character,” Cormier said. “But he just likes to win. I don’t have no problem with that. Everybody says he’s real crazy. But if you want to win as bad as him, then it’s the right place to go. He knows what he’s talking about.

“I remember when they were going through practice and I was watching and [some of the guys] were just loafing around. Then Coach Patsos storms on the court and starts [yelling] and just giving them an earful on what they were doing wrong, from the beginning of practice to the end. ... Then I was like, ‘OK, he wants to win.’ He’s pushing them and I need someone to push me.”

Cormier, who plans on majoring in accounting, said he’s excited to follow in the footsteps of other local players -- including Jamal Barney (Southwestern) and Gerald Brown (Douglass) -- who went on to have great careers at Loyola.

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About Matt Bracken

Matt Bracken was a lightly recruited football and tennis prospect out of East Lansing (Mich.) High School in 2001, but spurned all (nonexistent) scholarship offers to attend the University of Michigan. Matt graduated from UM in 2005, earned a master's degree in new media journalism from Northwestern University in 2006, and spent the first 11 months of his career as an online producer / videographer / blogger at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. He has worked at The Baltimore Sun since July 2007, where he currently serves as the deputy sports editor for digital.